Children & Youth
Bringing up children to know that God loves them is the greatest gift a parent can give. Our church treasures children, and strives to support parents as they help their children grow up in faith and friendship.
Children at our Services
Children of all ages are always welcome at Christ Church. If you want to bring your children to church to join in worship, thank you. Your children's presence is a gift, and it is a sign of trust which we want to honour.
We know that children weren't made to sit still. If your child gets antsy sitting in the pews, please feel free to get up and walk around the church a bit. We understand that kids make noise. That's okay! We love hearing them.
There is a soft chair for nursing or comforting a child in the entranceway to the church. This is a slightly quieter space than the church itself. (You can also go into that space and close the door between the entranceway and the main church, if that's helpful.)
We have set up the back-right corner of the church as a children's play space, with some comfortable chairs, some quiet toys and activities, a little table for having a snack or doing some colouring, and some other things that might engage your child's interest. Let us know what would be helpful to you, and we can include it! It's still a work-in-progress.
The church is stroller-accessible, but not from Hammond Street, where there are some steep stairs. For easier stroller access, we recommend using the gravel parking lot on Digby Street (behind the chuch), and coming around the side of the church to the main entrance.
Eventide: Church for Families and Young Adults
"Eventide" is an adapted service of Evening Prayer designed for families and young adults. It takes place on the 2nd and 4th Thursday of each month from 5:15-6:00, followed by a potluck supper from 6:00-6:45.
Why Eventide?
It is human and important—in fact, it is essential—to ask questions about the meaning and purpose of life; about what exists beyond us, what came before us, and what happens after this life; about what is right and wrong, and how to be reconciled to our own failures and those of others; about beauty and truth and their role in our lives; and about community, tradition, ritual, and rootedness. These questions are especially pressing in a world which seems detached from questions of meaning, and increasingly focused on institutions, power, and conformity instead of the things that make us human.
In generations past the church has been a place for people to explore these questions. But today, on top of the practical difficulty of getting to church while juggling family and work, many people feel like church isn’t for them. The church has too often forgotten the big questions and focused too much on preserving itself as an institution.
But the church still has a lot to offer. The church is for you, and for everyone. It has a rich heritage of poetry, art, ritual, and spiritual teaching, which is just as relevant today as in the past. We can embrace these traditions together, and be a community of people living in the mysteries of what it means to be human and what it means to know God.
Eventide is for you if you are hungry for deeper roots than contemporary culture can give you. It’s for you if ritual and “old ways” seem more appealing than the recent trends. It’s for you if you’re seeking a spirituality that moves yourself out of the centre and is open to transcendence. It’s for you if you are tired of individualism and are ready to be part of a community. It’s for you if you see the beauty of art, of nature, and of God as neglected but essential parts of life. It’s for you if you want your kids to have a spiritual practice.